For almost all of human history and pre-history -- going back tens of thousands of years -- the average human life expectancy was about 35 years or less. Steven Johnson, author of the new book Extra Life, describes this fact as The Long Ceiling. But something changed a few hundred years ago. A series of public health innovations started arriving in batches, each innovation building on the success of another, that finally began extending our average life expectancy to where it is now, at more than 70 years. Steven explains to Cardiff why these innovations began so late in the human experience, the institutions and public remedies needed for their benefits to spread, and what lessons they hold for the Covid era.

Links from the episode:

• Steven Johnson is on Twitter at @stevenbjohnson
• Steven’s website
• Extra Life, the book (https://tinyurl.com/yfksrh82)
• Extra Life, the PBS series (https://tinyurl.com/3hbk3sb7)
• The Ghost Map (https://tinyurl.com/5t48e5vy) 
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

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In The Delusions of Crowds, finance theorist William Bernstein writes about some of the famous financial bubbles and religious manias of the past. He joins Cardiff to discuss the connection between these two kinds of events, why humans are so susceptible to mass manias, the good that sometimes comes from a financial bubble, and how we can all spot the visible signs of manias when they arise. 

Links from the episode:

• The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups (https://tinyurl.com/95ff3emt)
• A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (https://tinyurl.com/kn6pdr7k)
• The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created (https://tinyurl.com/v8mw4be2)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ulrike Malmendier is the premier economic scholar for understanding how our experiences affect our decisions, even in ways we might not recognize. Ulrike joins Cardiff to discuss the nuances and applications of her research, including why daily habits like grocery shopping affect our expectations for the economy; how the crises we live through determine the extent of our lifetime participation in financial markets; and how policymakers at the Federal Reserve are just as susceptible to the effects of their experiences as the rest of us are to our own. Plus, Ulrike offers an optimistic view on how our future decision-making might be transformed by the pandemic. 

Links from the episode:

• Ulrike Malmendier is on Twitter at @umalmend
• Ulrike’s research (https://tinyurl.com/eyv99d4a)
• Ulrike’s AEA/AFRA Joint Lecture (https://tinyurl.com/9x94f8jr)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

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A few years ago, Maria Konnikova took a leave from her job as a psychology journalist at The New Yorker to try something new: become a professional poker player. Hoping merely for a good story to write about, she stunned everyone -- including herself -- with her accelerated mastery of the game, winning big tournaments and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars within just the first couple of years. Maria joins Cardiff to discuss what she learned in the process about her own psychological makeup, her capacity for change, and how we can all take lessons from poker to make better decisions. It’s the subject of her latest book, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, And Win, which is now available in paperback.

Links from the episode:

• Maria Konnikova is on Twitter at @mkonnikova
• Maria’s book, The Biggest Bluff (https://tinyurl.com/kexnvd4n)
• “Remembering Walter Mischel, with Love and Procrastination” in The New Yorker (https://tinyurl.com/zrbae2xx)
• Maria’s writing in The New Yorker (https://tinyurl.com/y8n88yy8)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Hugo Lopez is the director of race and ethnicity research at Pew Research Center. He and his colleagues recently conducted a sweeping survey about how Americans identify their racial, ethnic and foreign country origins.The results show that how we see ourselves isn’t fixed. It fluctuates and evolves -- revealing that identity can be as much a function of how we measure it as how we regard ourselves in a given moment. Cardiff and Mark also discuss immigration trends, how American views on diversity have changed over time, and even a little bit of politics.

Links from the episode:

• Mark Hugo Lopez is on Twitter at @MHugoLopez
• Pew Research identity report (https://tinyurl.com/y7mv3zn5)
• The growing diversity of black America (https://tinyurl.com/823dm2su)
• Census on race and ethnicity measures (https://tinyurl.com/h2696u3j)
• Mark's book recommendation, Bless Me, Ultima (https://tinyurl.com/zeyw7stu)
• Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane
• Send us an email! You can write to us at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Economist Peter Blair Henry has dedicated his career to understanding how a developing country can become more prosperous, lift more people out of poverty, and give its citizens better choices for how to work and live. He joins Cardiff to share his findings on this question from “The Baker Hypothesis”, a newly published paper he co-authored with Anusha Chari and Hector Reyes. Peter also gives his thoughts on the “degrowth” movement, the tricky balance between market-friendly policies and the role of government, and the evolution of economics. Finally, he shares his own personal experience of an economic catastrophe in his native Jamaica, which forced his family to uproot when he was young and sent him down this career path.

Links from the episode:

• Peter Blair Henry is on Twitter at @PeterBlairHenry

• The Baker Hypothesis: Stabilization, Structural Reforms, and Economic Growth (https://tinyurl.com/4ykzcn59)

• Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth (https://tinyurl.com/r9asz5xn)

• Cardiff and Aimee are also on Twitter at @CardiffGarcia and @AimeePKeane

• Send us an email! You can write to use at [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new podcast about how the economy shapes our lives. The first episode will be available on Thursday, August 12. See you then!

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